9 Feb 2008

Its not often that Joeli, 'Bite Me's deckie gets to fight his own fish but sometimes clearing a spread of lures when a guest angler hooks up can have its rewards.

On a recent half day 'Bite Me' charter Joe was clearing a couple of 15kg outfits when one unexpectedly put up some rather robust resistance. After the guest's fish was gaffed, Joe set about coaxing a nice yellowfin tuna out of the depths and onto the resorts dinner menu.

Next day, our PADI Instructor Simon Parry was treated to a go at the yellowfin out in front of the resort. His only previous fishing experience was sitting on a canal bank as a kid catching old boots. He soon got the hang of it after a bit of instruction from the crew and he was pretty damn pleased with the result.

Actually he is still bragging about it to anybody who will listen....

Guests are reminded that Joe's a big lad and its not a good idea to leave your sashimi lying around.

8 Feb 2008

"I am glad to have a chance to have experienced a memorable trip to Matava. Also, you guys there have done a fabulous job contributing lots to the education of our fragile environment and needs to conserving them for the future generations, cultural as well as Improving the social status of the locals. Hope the “Fiji Special” will contribute towards your goal."

Now:Fiji waters have been thick since Christmas with big schools of Yellowfin tuna. Ranging from marlin bait size to 100lbs plus, most good fish are coming in around the 80lbs mark with huge shoals of juveniles providing plenty of live bait for billfish enthusiasts.

All charter boats are reporting bumper catches of tuna with excellent action close in to the Great Astrolabe barrier reef around Kadavu island. The big yellowfin are schooling at 120ft in 300ft of water on the steep reef drop-offs. We are using the old trick of running a deep squid on a trip-planer to draw up the first fish then the whole spread gets smashed.

The Kadavu trench and seamount are still consistently producing several shots at blue marlin every visit. We are also still seeing the occasional wahoo, sail and short-billed spearfish when working out wide but the best time for these species is winter (May - October) when they turn up in huge packs.

Plenty of mahi mahi along current lines and the occasional raft of pummice from the underwater Tongan volcano that erupted last year.

Outlook:The predicted La Nina event is in full swing but the blues will keep biting until the water temperature hits 30 then the bite will cool a little. We expect March to be a relatively quiet few weeks for billfish as the hot calm sunny days bake the surface waters but the yellowfin and mahi mahi will keep anglers busy over bent rods. By April the water temperature will ease off its peak and the billfish action will fire up again.

The weather has mostly been excellent for popper casting anglers and should just keep getting better and better through February / March with calm seas allowing big game boats unlimited access to miles and miles of barrier reef breakers where the big GTs hang out.

Summary:

Blue marlin – Lots of mid sized fish with the occasional 500+ pounder

Yellowfin - Here in big numbers, a virtually guaranteed catch

Sailfish – Just the occasional

Wahoo – Just the occasional

Mahi Mahi – lots to 30lbs and some bigger bulls to 50lbs around

Mackerel – Just the occasional

GTs – Good bite at the moment with excellend weather conditions for popper casting

West Marine

Support Billfish Conservation

The Shark-Free Marina Initiative

The Shark-Free Marina Initiative has a singular purpose, to reduce worldwide shark mortality. We encourage shark conservation at sport fishing and resort marinas by prohibiting the landing of any shark at the participating marina. The SFMI works with marinas, fishermen and like minded non-profit groups to form community conscious policy and increase awareness of the need to protect our sharks, our ocean and our legacy.